Get started: Deploy and manage a full cloud IT solution with Microsoft Education

10/09/2017

8 minutes to read

Contributors

In this article

Applies to:

Office 365 for Education, School Data Sync, Microsoft Intune for Education, Microsoft Store for Education, Windows 10 Creators Update, Set up School PCs

Hello, IT administrators! In this walkthrough, we'll show you how you can quickly and easily use the new Microsoft Education system, consisting of new and existing cloud services and tools, to implement a full IT cloud solution for your school.

What is Microsoft Education?

Microsoft Education consists of these new and existing services and tools from Microsoft:

Microsoft Intune for Education for simple set up, control, and management of the resources for your school including apps, devices, and settings

Office 365 for Education provides online apps for work from anywhere and desktop apps for advanced functionality, built for working together and available across devices, and it's free for schools, teachers, and students

School Data Sync to help automate the process for importing and integrating School Information System (SIS) data that you can use with Office 365

OneNote Class Notebook to organize course content, create and deliver interactive lessons to some or all students, collaborate and provide private feedback to individual students, and connect with major LMS and SIS partners for assignment workflow

Microsoft Teams to bring conversations, content, and apps together in one place and create collaborate classrooms, connect in professional learning communities, and communicate with school staff

Learning Tools are moving beyond the OneNote desktop app and is now available in Office Lens, OneNote Online, Word Online, and Word desktop

Whiteboard to create interactive lessons on the big screen, share and collaborate real-time by connecting to Class Notebook and Classroom

Windows 10, version 1703 (Creators Update) which brings 3D for everyone and other new and updated Windows features

Minecraft: Education Edition which provides an open and immersive environment to promote creativity, collaboration, and problem-solving

With Microsoft Education, schools can:

Use affordable devices and simple setup - Boost creativity and get started instantly with Windows 10 devices that support Windows Ink. Set up devices in minutes and stay in control with the new Intune for Education.

Collaborate in a modern classroom - Help students become career-ready with Office apps like Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote. Increase comprehension and outcomes with the most advanced teaching apps like integrated Learning Tools.

Go beyond the browser with inspiring apps for classroom learning - Inspire with Minecraft: Education Edition and innovative apps from the Microsoft Store for Education.

Go to the Microsoft Education site to learn more. See How to buy to learn about pricing and purchasing options for schools, students, and teachers as well as academic pricing and offers for qualified K-12 and higher education institutions.

What we're doing

The end-to-end process for deploying and managing a full cloud IT solution with Microsoft Education is outlined here. Depending on your setup scenario, you may not need to implement all these steps.

Click the link to watch the video or follow the step-by-step guidance for each.

Prerequisites

Complete these tasks before you start the walkthrough:

Make sure all the devices that you want to configure, such as student PCs, have the latest Windows 10, version 1703 image installed.

We recommend Windows 10, version 1703 to take advantage of all the new features and functionality that Windows supports. This version of Windows is also compatible with the latest version of the Set up School PCs app and the versions must match in order for Set up School PCs to provision the devices.

If you don't have Windows 10, version 1703 installed on your devices, we recommend upgrading. This process takes a while so start this task before proceeding with this walkthrough.

Have an education-verified tenant to qualify for an Office 365 for Education subscription. You also need to be education-verified to use School Data Sync and Intune for Education.

If you don't have an education-verified domain, don't worry. We'll show you the steps on how to do this.

Note

If you need to get education-verified, it may take up to two weeks for the verification process to be completed.

Setup options

To make sure you have a successful experience with deploying and managing a full cloud IT solution with Microsoft Education, select the scenario that best describes your school or how you'd like to get started.

Option 2: Try out Microsoft Education in a trial environment

Once you get an Office 365 education-verified tenant, trying out Microsoft Education in a trial environment is an easy way to evaluate all the features and tools. Here, you'll use promo codes and sample files as you follow the walkthrough.

To get started with Microsoft Education in a trial environment, follow these steps.

Option 3: Try out Intune for Education

Already have an Office 365 for Education verified tenant? Just sign in with your global admin credentials to apply the Intune for Education preview trial code to your tenant and follow the rest of the walkthrough.

Dynamic groups - You can use dynamic groups to create rules that populate your groups (for example, a group with all 9th graders) instead of having to manually add or remove members of the groups. The group stays updated by continually staying populated with members that fit the rules you pick.

Password write-back - Allows you to configure Azure AD to write passwords back to your on-premises Active Directory. It removes the need to set up and manage a complicated on-premises self-service password reset solution, and it provides a convenient cloud-based way for your users to reset their on-premises passwords wherever they are.